Searching for a photo of a very special angel who no longer is with us, made me feel real nostalgic as I came across memories stored on my computer hard drive and some stored somewhere in the Cloud.
Funny how everything is hunky dory when one is busy, and I’m truly thankful for that busyness as our BnB came to a standstill during hard lockdown; but it can get a bit much, so today I had a moment to breathe, really breathe!
All it took was a question from a friend here on Hive to trigger real sad memories and the tears started flowing, but then I saw all the good memories during my search.
I'm truly thankful for those good memories and that’s what I will be sharing with you, as our American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving today; a different kind I would imagine though in this new world of ours!
Some of the stories you may have read before if you’re an old follower of my blog, but I’ve added a couple of new ones, and I’m sure some of these will give you a good old belly laugh
The First-Born Grandchild
Being the oldest of five children, and also the only girl with four brothers who were real rascals, plus being the oldest grandchild; I was doted on by all the aunts, uncles, grannies and grandpa’s!
The latter were not happy that I was not given a family name, but Mom & Dad stood their ground; their little girl was not going to be called Augusta, nor Anna Susanna!
Grandpa was really perturbed when he saw me in trousers for the first time, so pulled me aside and said I must not allow them to dress me up as a boy as I was his little girl; he was not impressed with these new fashions for girls at all!
Giving my age away with that not so;)
Fancy Dress
My youngest uncle was more like an older brother to me and was super talented and real arty; he ended up being a ballet dancer and eventually became a wardrobe manager at a big theatre towards the end of his career.
He was brilliant and could turn any ugly duckling into a swan.
I was his real-life living doll, and the Eastern Cape coastal city we lived in back then, had a bustling beachfront with annual fancy dress competitions.
So, I was entered into many of these and uncle would dress me up in all sorts of outfits, such a pity I don't have photos of any of those!
I still remember being dressed up once as the Terror of St Trinian's, with a long cigarette holder, beehive hairstyle and stilettos that were stuffed with crunched up newspaper for my tiny feet to fit in.
I could hardly walk in them, but the enormous box of chocolates that I won was almost as big as me!
I clung onto that box for dear life and would not let anyone help me carry it;)
Source
Farm School in the Forest
My Dad worked at a forestry station deep in the high mountains of the Eastern Cape of South Africa for a good couple of years.
Those were absolutely fabulous days.
My brothers and I had to walk through a forest to the tiny farm school; we’d stop to pick gum off trees and enjoy nature’s own sweet chewing gum!
Source
I can still smell that forest; Proteas grew wildly there as well as the Buchu bush which is a powerful herbal remedy for many ailments.
My friends and I were terrified of the Baboons that roamed those mountains and the boys would often tease us by mimicking their barks.
That small farm school had eighteen pupils in total and the headmaster had a dual role of being the teacher as well, with no one to assist him.
I still remember how we laughed and teased my brother who came first and last in his grade as he was the only one in that grade :)
We each had our own little vegetable patch and I do believe that's where my love of gardening was born.
Littlest Chef in the making
Helping Gran or Mom in the kitchen was something I loved from a very young age; I’d stand on the chair and ask for the Decipe before I could even read, and Gran would place the Recipe Book in front of me!
My Gran always contributed generously to the Church Bazaars by baking dozens of Milk Tarts, a traditional South African teatime treat. I remember counting 4 dozen milk tarts cooling off before packaging all over the living room, kitchen and dining room!
The Teens
When I got to my teens, it was the late 60s; Twiggy, Mary Quant, The Beetles and many famous icons of that era became our idols.
Being one of five children but still wanting to be dressed in the hippest fashions, I had to learn to design and sew my own clothes, under the guidance of my dear uncle.
So it happened one day that Mom had upholstery fabric left over in bright psychedelic colours, which was the fad at the time!
I got a brainwave and used it to make a funky pair of bell bottoms, and did I look funky the night I wore it!
However, at the end of the evening, I invited my friends in for a cup of coffee, but realised my folly too late.
As we walked into the lounge and I sat down, I and my stunning pair of bell bottoms blended in perfectly with the couch!
I was teased endlessly afterwards, and that pair of bell bottoms sadly ended up on the scrap heap, never to be seen again :)
I had my pair of John Lennon spectacles but never quite managed the Twiggy look we all strived for!
Paul 'Don' Smith's portrait of Twiggy, at London's South Bank
Image taken by Garry Knight on flickr.com
Good memories of carefree days locked up in my memory bank, but fortunately now here on Hive forever!
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Oh, I love the bell bottom story!!
This has been such a challenging and, in some ways, bittersweet time.
Have a good weekend, Lizelle
And how!
I will never forget my son's words in the beginning of the year:
Mom, I never thought I would experience something like this virus in my lifetime!
I honestly thought he was over reacting but then a couple of months later, the far reaching impact of this pandemic became real!
But thankfully we have those memories and can start creating our own kind of 'new normal.'
Thank you for popping in Fiona, hope your Sat market went well. We're having awful and unpredictable weather here!
Indeed!We're having typical windy November weather. Been chilly. Today's glorious. Market wasn't bad for the pre-season lull, thank you for asking...
Happy Sunday :D
Good morning @lizelle, I have so many memories that are reflected in your story.
The first bell bottoms, Twiggy, Omg, beehive hair do. Oh gf, have your got my memories a stirrin'.
I was the first born girl grandchild, I have one older brother. I felt like a princess most of the time. My grand parents would take me to the shore and indulge me with any treat or trinket I desired.
Boy the good old days. I was truly a blessed child.
Nice job with this post, really enjoyed it!
Happy Sunday
I'd love to read your story too @farm-mom! I'm quite keen to set a challenge about childhood memories/ fancy dress/ fashions, what do you think?
@lizelle, I am in, I so enjoy drawing the value from lessons learned, we have as mature ladies the ability to teach our younger peers.
Maybe our older values will stick.
Hard work, trust and hope.
Our future.
What delightful memories Lizelle. Very much made me smile.
Once upon a time I had a 3 year old step daughter that had trouble with the 'k' sound. So we'd go fairly regularly to feed the dups down at the park. They are still, and will always be dups to me.
My Dad was the only kid in 2nd grade so they made him a 3rd grader. He and I both graduated from High School at 17.
That's such nice memories, thanks for sharing it @bigtom13, how times have changed although now with home schooling it's kind of a similar situation not so, or as your step daughter would have said, pind of...;);)
Memories flood back with old photograph albums, I took a whole lot and made a collage for my passage to stand and ponder over these good happy/sad days.
Thanks for taking us down your walk through memories, reminders of similar events and absolute fun @lizelle
I think many of us went through similar experiences growing up. I love the photo collages, have a couple on my walls here at home but as the years go by, I'm starting to run out of wall space;);)
Ohhh...what a fun story to read isn't it funny and hilarious when we look back at our pass we are forever saying no that wasn't me doing that ohh... really did i dress up like that , these stories could go on forever nice of you to share a bit of fun in your life with us i enjoyed the read 😊
I'm so glad you enjoyed it @kohsamui99, it's actually good putting all our stories into a blog as one forgets, but once you start writing more and more memories come back. Very true, we can only chuckle thinking back on how we used to dress up in order to look hip and cool:):)
This would be such a fun topic it would go on forever i have so many fun photos of my childhood with my other 5 brothers and one sister but i would be to embarrassed to show myself in my dress ups 😆
Wouldn't it be fun to have this as a challenge theme! I dare you to write a post about your childhood memories! I'm just so sorry we don't have pics of those fancy dress competitions when I was a kid, I do have some of my son though.
Haha ... as a challenge theme it would be hilarious judged on the craziest dress up , weirdest haircut , madness things we did as a child or teenager you get the flow...definitely get some laughs 😆 May be tempting for me to write a post i will tag you if i get the courage to do it...lol 😆
I hope you do😊
Growing up in the 60, lots of good memories left embedded from those days. Boy, life was so much simpler back then, black was black, and white was white, no gray areas. You knew how you were expected to behave. Playing was done for real, not virtually.
I miss the simplicity of those times.
You've summed those days up perfectly @thebigsweed! One can just reiterate with that old Mary Hopkin song
<Those were the days my friend
Life was more real back then for sure!
Thank you so much for reading, appreciate your wonderful feedback as always.
My pleasure, your blogs are always worth my time.